Hoi An

We left at 6:15 this morning and flew on this weensy plane back to Ho Chi Minh City and then caught another flight to Da Nang where a bus met us and drove 45 minutes to our hotel in Hoi An.

With a two hour wait in HCMC, we drank glass after glass of iced coffee, and Joanna took out her silk and linen that she is making into yard for weaving; here she is using what she called a drop spindle to twist and wind the thread.

When we saw this hotel, I think we all flipped.  We are in the new town, on a river, and the hotel has a pool.  After a light lunch, I walked around and photographed some of the old city which looks wonderfully aged and intricately sculpted.  Tomorrow I will scrutinize it more closely.

This is an example of the architecture from across the bridge over the canal full of boats and activity, including this funky looking boat and women in their cone hats rowing back and forth from each side.

I rented a bike with one of the members of our group, and we rode the 3 miles out to the beach where we locked up our bikes and drank the best tasting Saigon beers in bottles.  Once we'd finished, we took off our shoes and walked thigh high into the water, chatting and photographing the low-key, low volume scene around us.  I remember very distinctly being in Cat Ba when I went to Ha Long Bay, and I went swimming in the late afternoon; the beach was packed with people deep into the dusk hours; the Vietnamese LOVE their swimming time in the ocean!

On the ride back I took this rice field that had a little boat floating up in the left quadrant and the man in the fields collecting rice or weeds or who knows what.  The light was that late afternoon glisten, buttering everything in its glow.

When we got back to the old town, the boats were looking golden in the light:

These little fellas were practicing some kind of martial arts, and the class had just ended with this last move; the children gleefully skipped out to the waiting motorbikes and pleased moms and dads.

And this wonderfully colored house was on my way back tonight after having a veggie noodle soup.  Needless to say, today was a relaxed day despite the early hour of our start this morning.  Some days it's hard to imagine that we are on an academic endeavor!